Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help – in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

Remember, it is your responsibility to know your blogging rights, what you can and cannot do on your blog. Freedom of Speech is a right and a privilege. As a privilege, there are rules. Claiming you didn’t know after the fact doesn’t work. Know before you blog.

5 Comments

The saddest thing is that in Malaysia, such legal rights don’t exist and for the growing part, people abuse the right for freedom to express every damn thing they want…including racial hate speech which is deemed as seditious in our part of the country and you can be jailed for it.

Such laws are a two edged blade.

It’s hard to defend free speech when there are people who will misuse it to no end.

So glad to see the word “responsibility” raised in this topic–too many bloggers seem to think that “free speech” and “carte blanche” are synonymous when, in fact, freedom of speech is a narrow concept that applies only when dealing with governmental restrictions. As writers, bloggers or creative people of any ilk, we should respect each other’s work as the fruits of labor that it is and not attempt to co-opt it for our own use/profit.

Actually I read with interest. Legal issues have always been interesting while I am no lawyer.

Although I agree that many courts are not really sure about blog judgements, the basis of likening them to licensed publication (regulated and with authority) and code-observing professional journalist is not agreeable.

Which is why Scope has also written his original piece on such legal stuff hyper casually being not a lawyer.

Actually, to me, it’s common sense and not freedom of speech that matters. By the way, I am looking to work outside Singapore, it’d be nice if anyone has any lobangs (aka opportunities) to recomment.

Depends upon what you are doing with your blog. If it is a personal blog, anything goes. If it is a business blog, use business style guidelines. From there, it’s up to you. With a blog, anything goes as long as that is where you want to take it.

[…] The Electronic Frontier Foundation – Bloggers Legal Rights is at the forefront for protecting Blogger rights as well as other online rights and freedoms, and I wrote about their efforts over the past year to protect freedom of speech for bloggers. […]